A box a day, all through May?

We've unpacked everything we NEED, and now there's a hideous mess of boxes junking up what we call "The Boxroom".

It will one day be called The Playroom. But I have no idea when that will be.

I had a vague idea: wouldn't it be GREAT if I could unpack a box every day for a whole month? We could call it ...

"A box a day, all through May?"

Well, yah, it WOULD be great, but I happen to know myself, and I can tell you right now that the absolute best we can hope for is for me to make it to about 8th May and only then give up. Huh. I should be so lucky to make it to the 8th though.

I also counted the boxes. There are 50. This means that by the end of May, if I stuck to "a B a D, all thru M", I would still have 19 boxes left there in The Boxroom. And I would probably weep. And get a box of matches.

The Packers did indeed save my life (there was NO WAY POSSIBLE I could have done this move without them) but they did some odd things. Today I found a little package of stuff wrapped up in pink paper - we have a squillion of these little pink packages to unwrap - and I opened it. This was what was inside.

That's it. A plastic lid that is no longer needed (to the recycling bin) a plastic spoon that is too grotty for human use (a potential dog-food spoon) and a pair of plastic-handled scissors (to my study.) Thanks, Packers, for wrapping them so nicely, and for keeping them together. For that is where they obviously needed to be. Together. Because they belong. Oh yes indeedy.

One of the slats in Sonny Ma-Jiminy's bed was broken in two. I won't mention which heavy de Elba cracked it while messing about roughly on the bed with which of his children. Anyway, it was a piece of pine, snapped in two.

What would you have done with it?

Well, between Packers and Removalists, one half was carefully wrapped up with the other slats, the other half was abandoned - left in the corner of the room after everything else was packed and loaded onto the van. Now, I didn't particularly care what was done with the broken slat because it's been replaced now anyway, but wouldn't you think that both halves would have been treated the same? I would have too.

Your comments to me at the time regarding your nightmares with Packers were truly unbelievable.

Femina said...
When my friend moved the packers very efficiently packed her handbag. She had to get people to ring her mobile while she pressed her ear against the boxes trying to work out which one was ringing!

Hippomanic Jen said...
I like things that are the same in the one box ... When I've moved my wonderful Mum has come to help me. She is a "I have a space *this* big left in a box, what will fit in that sized space?" packer. I am a "Why don't they make all the ancient history books the same size so that they would fit in the same box?" packer. On reaching one destination and deciding to water my plants I started to fill my watering can, only to find it stuffed with my velcro hair curlers. Mum definitely packed THAT box!!

Ann said...
My last move, the packers (besides breaking things) actually packed my makeup INSIDE the toilet-brush holder!! Dee-skust-ing!! Of course I had to throw out the whole shebang... So we're moving again, and I can't decide if it's worse to do the work myself, or worry about what horrid things they're doing with my stuff....

Adrian's Crazy Life said...
Think that's bad - when we moved to Utah from California, the movers packed my birth control pills! They packed my whole suitcase right in the middle of a 15 foot truck. I had to wear the same sweaty clothes for 3 days straight. I thought oh this is great, I haven't been in Utah for a week and I'm going to be barefoot and pregnant. Fortunately, I didn't end up getting pregnant, but it would have made a funny story!

Joy said...
... One time when my Aunt moved the packers packed her entire trashcan with the garbage still in it. How nice of them.

Thankyou all for your kind comments, even if I'm not getting around to replying to you all personally. Your stories are ghastly, and if I was charged with finding a winner, you would all come equal first.

Hippomanic Jen's mother had a terrifying story about UNPACKERS (I never knew that people would unpack for you!) Beware of Unpackers. Listen to this:

She said that on reaching her destination after a big move, the removalists said that their instructions were to return WITH ALL OF THEIR BOXES. They started unpacking, and HJ's Mum was frantically trying to put kitchen things away into cupboards - any cupboards - while the movers piled her kitchen table high with assorted unpacked stuff.

With two small children, she watched in dismay as the beds were piled high with anything imaginable, because the movers had instructions not to put anything on the floor. It all had to be up off the floor.

I blanched in terror at the thought of that. Apart from everything else, we have 50 boxes of non-essentials including approximately a bazillion useless books that would have to have been shoved somewhere. We certainly don't have enough shelving to hold it all. It would have been enough to make me punch out a bunch of removalists (who my mother kindly calls "gorilla men" due to the usual physique of these men who are engaged in heavy lifting every day of the week.)

In Summary:
- we've unpacked the essential things
- it will be a long time before the rest is "dealt with"
- the Playroom will remain the Boxroom for a while longer
- I am beyond glad that we didn't have an UNPACKING service
- A Box A Day, All Through May is probably a little ambitious, but wouldn't it be great?